people who did not tell their parents they're going skydiving - après jump @ whitespot

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Here is someone who didn't tell his parents he's going skydiving

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The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) was excellent... which is to say, it had a well written script and great acting, was beautifully filmed, and, rather importantly, did not have any annoying characters in it. Apparently it won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. One of the main characters was played by Sebastian Koch, a German actor whose face reminded me of Orion, but who, I am certain, is actually much more handsome than Orion... though, with an always flawed memory, I can't seem to convince myself of that enough. And... after wandering a while with the thought of Orion/Sebastian Koch knocking about inside my head... I was alarmed by my inability to remember what went wrong... it had something to do with organized criminals, history of the near east, and something about the importance of adhering to grammatical and orthographical conventions... but in my review, I could almost believe that things could have gone differently. Of course, things could have gone differently... but eventually, one day, I'd mention something about the Palestinian plight and things would all fall apart anyway. My susceptibility to this sort of re-examination that I fear too closely approaches regret leads to an urgent questioning of my judgement, which is obviously ridiculously easy to impair with a pretty face... or an abundance of improbably tousled curly hair.

"We all have our weaknesses," quoth he. Yes. But let's move on already.

Next film... Angel-A. Black and white... filmed in Paris... pretty to look at. Dumb story. Annoying characters. But... pretty to look at. Any movie that has (as an important development in the story) its main character looking into a mirror and saying "I love you" is not the sort of movie I'd like to see. So dude hates himself. Well, guess what buddy, there's no reason he shouldn't. And any movie that has dude saying "I love you" to himself in the mirror and then shedding a tear is definitely not the sort of movie I'd like to see. But... it was pretty to look at. Very pretty to look at. Pretty enough to make it worth watching... and Rie Rasmussen was very pretty to look at.

Next film... Priceless (Hors de prix). Ridiculously annoying main character. Loser as main character. In fact, the main character was such a loser that it makes it somewhat painful to watch... there were certain points in the movie where I was considering turning it off. Had it been in English, I'm sure I would have stopped watching... but seeing as it was in French, and I could really use all the French I can get, I kept going... which was a good choice... because after a turn in the plot, it actually became quite tolerable... it turned into watchable and entertaining fluff... and it, too, was very pretty to watch... the Côte d'Azur is very pretty.

And now... time for a few updates.

The bungee jumping videos are too big to put on here. I can't figure out how to make it smaller. I can't figure out how to upload it onto Youtube. Don't tell me I ought to be able to. I have technologically regressed. I was at the top of my game when I dialed up on my 33.6. The last time I had any idea what was going on with my computer, it was probably a 486SX33. I can't figure it out.

Sylvia turned 30. She came out on the weekend and we flew up to the hot spring. It was awesome. After 15 minutes, the two boats and their passengers left, and we had the whole place to ourselves. We got some pictures and videos of our private hot spring... Sylvia is probably waiting for me to send them to her. From now on, if we're going to the hot springs, we're flying. Flying is awesome.

Suzie came out for a visit... and it was raining the entire time. She too, is probably waiting for me to send her some pictures. It was a fun visit... sort of a flashback to a life I have abandoned.

If anyone else is waiting for me to send pictures... I'm on it. You know. One day. Eventually.

5X2

I have just returned yet another DVD... 5x2 is a movie by some French dude starring Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who was in Ah! Si j'étais riche, which was written by Gérard Bitton, who also wrote La vérité si je mens, which I would like to watch again. 5x2, however, I would not like to watch again. The movie is about the disintegration of a relationship... and the end is in the beginning. The movie is divided into five episodes that show the relationship in reverse chronological order-- divorce and physical violence, awkwardness at dinner with guests, childbirth, wedding, and meeting. It sounds sort of like a messed up Scenes from a Marriage... but unlike Bergman's very likable Johann and Marianne, the two characters were, to quote Dr. Kelso from Scrubs, "bastard coated bastards with a bastard filling"...

It was seriously uninspirational.

The DVD came with a "director's commentary" track as if it were a Criterion film... except it wasn't a Criterion film and the commentary track was also seriously uninspirational... but I listened to it anyway because it takes forever for me to receive the next movie in the mail (it should be Luc Besson's Angel-a)... and the commentary was available in French only... so it could potentially have been rewarding. Apparently the most remarkable thing about the movie was "the challenge of making the actors look younger as the movie went on"... whoopy-ding.

But at least now I get to watch the sort of movies I think I want to watch... even if they end up totally sucking.

So I'll be going skydiving sometime soon. Sean (not Shawn) is totally into the idea so he and I are going to do this in Campbell River as soon as is practicable... it would make it easier if more people were interested in joining us... that way we don't have to wait for them to gather enough people... so... anyone want to go skydiving? We're not into having dudes on our backs... so it's going to be solo jumps from 3,500 ft and not the more exciting 10,000 ft tandem jumps. Anyone? $230 for instructions and two jumps... and I think they even throw in a t-shirt.

And... it occurred to me today that maybe what I was looking for in bungee jumping was not fear but terror... which, maybe, is really a round about way in which I am trying to find beauty... "for beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror we can just barely endure, and we admire it so because it calmly disdains to destroy us"...

Yoga and surfing tomorrow.

Hey Mtl, Otw, and TO!

Here's today in the tropics of Canada.
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4 out of 4

Bungee jumping was not as scary as I had hoped... apparently in order to really get the most out of bungee jumping, it helps to have a fear of heights. I had assumed that everyone is afraid of heights... some more than others... but I assumed that everyone is going to be terrified at the prospect of jumping off a bridge 150ft straight down. Surprisingly, it wasn't actually that terrifying... it was pretty trippy and a little unusual... inducing nervousness that never grew into terror. It isn't so much fear that gripped me as it was a failure to understand the point of it. I expected debilitating terror to set in... but it didn't.... I experienced nervousness... which probably stemmed more from the fact that I didn't know how it works and have never seen it done (I was the only one at the whole place) rather than from any belief in its dangerousness. Maybe 150ft isn't high enough... maybe the survival instincts don't quite kick in because falling 150ft into water doesn't intuitively promise certain death, even on a primitive, instinctual level.

It is also possible that I am easily assured... if someone knowledgeable (and therefore credible) tells me an activity is safe... I trust the assurance and I will fully participate in the activity without fear. When Corran Addison told me that river surfing is safe (well, maybe those weren't his exact words)... I did not hesitate in jumping in to the St Lawrence with a little shortboard (really really short... it must have been around 5ft). When the Tahitian charter operator took us beyond the reef, dumped a bucket of bloody fish into the ocean to attract the sharks and told us to jump in to hang out with the sharks, I did. Afterall, why wouldn't I? How often does one get to swim with sharks? And would they knowingly feed tourists to sharks? So when these bungee guys told me that bungee jumping is safe, what reason would I have to doubt them? Jumping is just not that big a deal... it's done every day.

I'm uploading (or, I think I'm uploading) the little videos I took with my camera while jumping. It's going on you tube... so you can see for yourself how scary or not scary it was. And just for fun... here are the sharks from Tahiti... one came at me for a very brief while... it was sort of scary... but not scary enough...




The bungee guys said that after my jump, I'd feel great for the rest of the day... that there would be a top-of-the-world, i-can-do-anything sort of elation. Well... it was subtler than that... it wasn't sudden or profound or cathartic... but the next day, I did manage to score 4 out of 4 on the H-scale of happiness... so maybe it's subtler, yet very real "good feeling"...

Wanted: functioning amygdalae

Maybe instead of mentioning it here, I should put an ad on craigslist. I need a couple of replacement amygdalae. Mine aren't working.

Either that or bungee jumping just isn't very scary or exciting. Maybe I should jump out of planes instead. Who wants to go skydiving?

If I jump out of a plane with as little hesitation as I had jumping off a bridge, I may have to see a neurologist or mental health professional about my pathological fearlessness.

There was no snow on the ground this morning...

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